Rolls-Royce has used the glamourous 'The Quail' luxury and classic car event in California - part of Monterey Car Week - to show off its latest creation, the Rolls-Royce Droptail 'La Rose Noire'.
The Droptail isn't a production model for Rolls, nor does it directly preview a forthcoming new car. This 'La Rose Noire' is the first of four Droptails that will be made for Rolls' more discerning customers, and it occupies a middle ground between a concept car and a one-off special.
Inspired by the 1920s and 1930s
The Droptail follows on from the recent 'Sweeptail' models - bespoke one-offs, or few-offs, built on special commissions - and takes inspiration from the 1920s and 1930s cars made usually for the American market.
The Droptail isn't as massive as you might think. It's 5.3 meters long and two metres wide, and while, as has been pointed out, it's not a preview of a new model, there are some styling touches that might well make it through to future Rolls-Royces. Look at the vanes in the traditional Rolls grille - they lean inwards slightly at the top, creating a sleeker effect and causing a defining shadow line on top of the grille.
Below the grille, the edges of the car are rounded - 'chamfered' as Rolls prefers to put it - to give the car a less formal character. Could we even call it sporty? No, surely not. Rolls never makes sporty cars...
From the side, you can see that the line of the Droptail matches its name, falling away like the stern of a classic racing boat towards the rear of the car. Behind the seats are fairings that Rolls refers to as 'sail cowls', which signal that, uniquely among modern Rolls-Royce cars, this is a two-seater.
The rear deck of the car, on which those sail cowls sit, is way more complex than you might imagine, as the shape of the deck has to cope with the aerodynamic lift that such a falling shape would normally create. Rolls, of course, did not want to use anything as vulgar as a rear spoiler. In fact, the rear body shape actually produces downforce - something that Rolls says took two years and 20 different designs to achieve.
The side profile includes more innovation, in that one of the prospective owners decreed that "nothing but the door handles, Spirit of Ecstasy and Rolls-Royce monogram should interrupt its monolithic surfaces" of the car. So, Rolls' engineers had to find ways to conceal the door locks and the side indicator repeater and move the double-R logo to the 'sail cowls.'
At the rear, the lights form what Rolls calls a 'transom' - named after the back end of a boat, for any of you land-lubbers - while underneath, there's a rear diffuser, critical for the car's aero balance, which is actually made from carbon-fibre.
Carbon-fibre structure
Underneath, there is some potential future significance as the Droptail doesn't use the current 'Architecture of Luxury' aluminium chassis that you'll find under the Phantom, Ghost, and Cullinan. Instead, the Droptail uses a rigid monocoque constructed from aluminium, steel and carbon fibre. Steel is used for the load-bearing front wing and door sections, but from the b-pillar rearwards, carbon fibre is used, comprising three bonded sections.
Power comes from the same 6.75-litre V12 turbo engine as the rest of the Rolls lineup (with the exception of the all-electric Spectre), giving 600hp and 840Nm of torque.
The removable hard-top has been designed to reference classic hot-rod styling of the 1930s and 1950s. The roof is made of carbon fibre and includes an electrochromic glass panel that dims and lightens at the touch of a button.
Inside, Rolls has pared back the interior design, leaving just three physical buttons visible - a design that apparently took four years and development and testing. The 'shawl panel' is the biggest section - a vast, sweeping wood surface that wraps around the driver and passenger. Between the seats is a cantilevered 'plinth' on which you'll find the car's major control switches and which slides discreetly out of the way when you don't want to look at it.
Special black-red paint
The first Droptail to be shown is this, the 'La Rose Noire', whose colour scheme has been inspired by the Black Baccara rose, a flower whose petals look either black or deep red, depending on in which the light you're viewing them. To achieve that variation, surface finish specialists at Rolls developed a completely new paint process, which was perfected over 150 different iterations. A base coat, the colour of which is a closely guarded secret, was followed by five layers of clear lacquer, each blended with a slightly different tone of red.
Even the exterior and interior chrome joins in - these pieces are not painted; rather, a specific chrome electrolyte is introduced in the chrome plating process and co-deposited on each stainless-steel substrate in a layer just one micron thick - roughly the same width as a strand of spider-web silk - while the vanes on the grille get a coat of the special black-red paint on their reverse sides, for contrast. The 22-inch wheels also get the black-red shimmer of the special paint.
The interior of 'La Rose Noire' is less of a vehicular cabin and more of a mobile art gallery. The artwork represents an abstract expression of falling rose petals, formed using 1,603 pieces of black wood veneer triangles. The highly complex pattern is formed with 1,070 perfectly symmetrical elements forming the background and 533 asymmetrically positioned red pieces representing the rose petals. The clients requested the asymmetry to represent a natural, organic 'scattering' of petals. Made from Black Sycamore wood sourced in France as a subtle tribute to the French provenance of 'La Rose Noire', each triangle is cut, sanded, and precisely positioned by hand. The pieces that appear to be stained light and dark grey are, in fact, presented in their natural hue; the colour difference is achieved by using veneer from several logs with different 'figures' - the natural pattern on the veneer. Paint was used only to create the red pieces - to avoid the colour fading over time, the marque's artisans spent a year developing a new lacquer formula to protect this extraordinary projection of contemporary craft.
Even the dashboard clock is special. In fact, it's not a clock at all, but a watch, specially made by Audemars Pugeut (a company whose watches normally cost as much as an expensive car). The 43mm Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date clock can be mounted to the dashboard or removed and strapped to your wrist.
Another special feature for this car includes bespoke champagne storage with a serving tray (clearly, your butler must follow on in another car...). The champagne in the storage is, believe it or not, bespoke to the car - an exclusive vintage of Champagne de Lossy, a favourite property of the car's owners. This is of particular significance given the special wine created for La Rose Noire Droptail is one of only a precious handful of vintages produced by the Chateau in its 160-year history.
"Today, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars unveils Droptail, an exquisite coachbuilt motor car that resets our understanding of what is possible in the luxury sector. Indeed, our dedicated Coachbuild department is the only place in the world where true patrons of luxury can create a motor car not for their image, but in their image. These extraordinary products are roadgoing expressions of applied art, built from the ground up over more than four years in collaboration with a small constellation of our most ambitious clients. These individuals join our designers, engineers and craftspeople at every stage of their masterpiece's development. The result of this partnership is an historic motor car that is as fundamentally unique as its owner that will enter Rolls-Royce history as a testament to the shared ambition of our brand and its clients. Droptail also answers a long-standing question - can a car be created as art? With the unveiling of this extraordinary roadster, the answer is, unequivocally, yes" said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. "Rolls-Royce 'La Rose Noire' Droptail is a love story, thoughtfully captured and stunningly projected onto the canvas of a Rolls-Royce motor car. It is an expression of the deep and passionate partnership between a husband and wife who are the heads of a prominent international family - to be part of their remarkable story is a privilege. Furthermore, La Rose Noire Droptail stands as a testament to our brand's relentless pursuit of perfection, where artistry and the vision of a single client truly harmonise. In every detail of this historic commission, there are echoes of both Rolls-Royce's rich heritage and the commissioning clients' character, from its captivating yet formidable form to its flawless and elegant romantic gestures. La Rose Noire Droptail, like the remarkable clients who dared to make such a potent and contemporary statement, will be written into Rolls-Royce history forever."
Three more special Droptail commissions will be revealed in the coming weeks and months.